A video shared by Tehran Times claims to show the moment a US F-35 fighter jet was hit during a combat mission over Iranian airspace. The clip shows the aircraft appearing to take damage, with explosions, smoke trails, and the jet veering off course mid-air.
A US F-35 fighter jet was attacked during an Iranian strike and forced to make an emergency landing at a military base in the Middle East, according to CNN. The claim, first made by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), would mark the first known instance of Iran hitting one of the US military’s most advanced and expensive aircraft in the ongoing conflict in Middle East.
According to the IRGC, the stealth jet was struck by air defence systems over central Iran in the early hours of Thursday. A video shared by Tehran Times claims to show the moment a US F-35 fighter jet was hit during a combat mission over Iranian airspace. The clip shows the aircraft appearing to take damage, with explosions, smoke trails, and the jet veering off course midair.
In a statement, the IRGC said it had “struck and seriously damaged” the aircraft at around 2.50 am (local time), adding that the jet’s fate remains unclear and that there is a “high possibility” it may have crashed. The group also said the operation followed the interception of more than 125 US-Israeli drones, calling it evidence of improvements in Iran’s air defence systems.
If confirmed, the incident would mark the first time Iran has successfully targeted an F-35, a fifth-generation fighter jet that costs more than $100 million and is considered a cornerstone of US air power. Both the US and Israel have been deploying F-35s extensively since the conflict escalated on February 28.
US CONFIRMS EMERGENCY LANDING, PLAYS DOWN DAMAGE
According to CNN, US Central Command said the aircraft was “flying a combat mission over Iran” when it was forced to make an emergency landing. “The aircraft landed safely, and the pilot is in stable condition,” spokesman Captain Tim Hawkins told CNN. “This incident is under investigation.”
However, Washington has not issued any official statement. The Pentagon said its operations are going as planned, with Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth saying the US is “winning decisively” and that Iran’s air defences have been “flattened”.
Amid escalating conflict, at least 16 US aircraft have reportedly been destroyed since the start of the war, including 10 Reaper drones, while several others have been damaged in combat or accidents.
[ADDENDUM]
The actual video of the event, plus more, from The Hindustan Times:
Who?
So the message is clear:
Build a cheap, sustainable network of IR trackers you can put everywhere, on the ground, aerial drones, maybe even balloons, and then have an array of cheaper than radar guided, IR guided missiles, with slightly larger warheads than that one.
Sure, they won’t see the thing before it gets too close, but once it does get to close, decent chance you cost US taxpayers another $100 million, and whittle down their very difficult to manufacture air force over time.
Also, reducing IR signature… is a major consideration in how to design a stealth aircraft.
Because IR tracking is a thing that exists and works.
Numerous aircraft have been designed in ways that try to significantly reduce their IR signature.
‘Stealth’ doesn’t just mean ‘Radar Stealth’.
That’s what Radar Stealth means.
You can see in that video above just how well that “IR masking” works. The shape of the plane is barely distinguishable against the sky.
There’s only so much you can do to hide a plane from heat-seeking missiles. The best bet is to try outmaneuvering it and confusing it with flares.
Is this a joke?
It was distinguishable enough that it had a consistent target lock on it, as indicated by the framing box, and realtime highspeed camera tracking.
???
Oh, well, for it to do that, it would need to be able to detect an incoming missile.
… which it did not, otherwise it would have been doing those things.
Yes.
It does have sensors that look for the heat signature of the missile’s rocket engine. There should be alarms screaming in the cockpit, the plane diving and doing pirouettes with flares flying everywhere. I don’t know why that doesn’t seem to be happening - maybe the video isn’t real.